Peter Grant once looked forward to a police career made of boring paperwork, but then he discovered magic. Now he's apprenticed to Inspector Nightingale, the last known British mage, and has more excitement than he can handle. The latest case: an American art student is found dead on the railroad tracks, and the murder weapon has a whiff of magic to it. Before he knows it, Peter is tracking pottery smugglers and slogging through sewers, all while trying to keep his supernatural ability hidden from his co-investigator, an enigmatic FBI agent.

Lots of subtle build-up of the magical community here. In the first book, the only magic seemed to be in Nightingale's Folly, but by now we've gotten a hint of magicians from all over the world, plus beings and magic systems hidden in London that even Nightingale did not know about. I think there might be something cool going on with Lesley's face--the half-goblin seemed fascinated by it. Perhaps magical people see it not as a barely healed mask, but as something beautiful or powerful? And I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Little Crocodiles plot.